A STRING OF EMPTY TOMBS

A STRING OF EMPTY TOMBS

We celebrate many things with Easter. The resurrection is not just the mystery of Christ rising from the dead and of our future rising from the dead. It's life's spring, the event and power that brings new life out of what's been crucified by winter, from what's died, from what lies frozen and lifeless. Like nature needs spring each year, so, too, we need regular resurrections. Much in us lies frozen, crucified, lifeless.

So we live on, far from fully alive, on automatic pilot, the Christ in us lying in the tomb, what's most precious in us frozen under bitterness. There is darkness at the end of the tunnel, save for one thing: Spring and resurrection! Every spring, a warm sun reappears and nature and ourselves are given the opportunity to unthaw, to resurrect.

Some years back, I received an Easter card that contained only these simple words: “May you leave behind you a string of empty tombs!” That's the challenge of Easter: To resurrect daily, to leave behind us a string of empty tombs, to let our crucified hopes and dreams be resurrected so that, like Christ, our lives will radiate that, in the end, everything is good, reality can be trusted, love does triumph over apathy and hatred, togetherness over loneliness, peace over chaos, and forgiveness over bitterness.

We need regular resurrections. Spring and the resurrection are the season to let ourselves be unthawed, to revirginize, to come to second naiveté, to think young again, to give the child in us scope again, to be open again to new possibilities, to surprise, to a new frolic under the sun after a cold bitter time.

Nature, all of it including us, is incredibly resilient, incredibly resurrectable. Given any chance, life wins out, brokenness heals, bitterness melts, new seeds form and life bursts forth from what once appeared to be dead.

(Fr. Ron Rolheiser, OMI)